


Free Fall

by ImpishTubist



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Language, injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-07
Updated: 2014-04-07
Packaged: 2018-01-18 13:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1429912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImpishTubist/pseuds/ImpishTubist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four days after the incident, Bones finally blinked open bleary eyes and demanded in an indignant, rasping voice to know why he felt like an entire mountain had fallen on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Canon_Is_Relative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canon_Is_Relative/gifts).



> This was a birthday gift I wrote last week for Canon_Is_Relative. Canon, I’m so lucky to know you and call you friend. Thank you for being my writing buddy and partner-in-crime for these past few years! It’s been wonderful :) Here’s to many more happy years of friendship and writing

It took Jim Kirk five days to enter the incident into his captain’s log. 

 

He was kept busy that first day with coordinating the rescue operation and getting all of the wounded on board for emergency transport to Starbase 24. _Enterprise_ ’s med bay was ill-equipped to deal with the sheer number of wounded, and so the most that the medical staff could do was stabilize the patients as best as they could until the Starbase doctors and equipment could take over. 

 

The wounded were all miners who were working in an asteroid belt in the Trinia star system, and they had been caught in a massive cave-in. _Enterprise_ had been the closest ship to their position, and they were the only one that could render aid. It took ten hours to safely extract all of the wounded. The two dozen dead had to be left behind, and a starship would retrieve them at a later time. 

 

Leonard McCoy had led his medical teams to the asteroid each time, transporting the wounded back to the ship in groups of five or six. It was painstaking work, made treacherous by the fact that the entire asteroid was still unstable and they were working against a clock. 

 

They had almost made it out without further injuries, too. The medical teams had just transported the last of the wounded when another cave-in occurred, this one burying the remaining medical personnel just before they had beamed to the ship. Bones was among them, and he was the one who suffered the worst injuries.

 

He had remained unconscious and in surgery during the eighteen-hour trip to Starbase 24, and even when all his internal injuries had been repaired, his survival was uncertain. Jim couldn’t bring himself to say the words out loud; to enter it into his log that, “CMO Leonard McCoy was among the injured, and is not expected to survive.” And so the entire incident remained unrecorded, even as the wounded were all transferred to Starbase 24’s medical bay and reports were filed with Starfleet Command.

 

It wasn’t until he received word from Christine Chapel that they were bringing Bones out of his medically-induced coma that Jim allowed himself to relax slightly. Four days after the incident, Bones finally blinked open bleary eyes and demanded in an indignant, rasping voice to know why he felt like an entire mountain had fallen on him. It was only then that Jim felt like he could breathe properly again. 

 

He finally recorded his captain’s log with only a passing mention of Bones’ injuries, mostly because he didn’t like thinking about them for long. He stayed away from the med bay for two days after that, allowing Bones to heal in peace, for he knew how irritable Bones got when he felt as though someone was hovering over him. It was only after _Enterprise_ finally departed from Starbase 24 that Jim went down to the med bay to check up on Bones’ recuperation. 

 

Christine intercepted him as soon as he stepped through the doors. 

 

“What are you doing here?” she all but demanded. Jim lifted an eyebrow at her.

 

“I’m here to see how my CMO is doing,” he said, resisting the urge to add, _What in hell do you think I’m doing here?_

 

“He’s about as cheerful as a cat in a cage,” Christine said flatly. “And I don’t need you exciting him. We’ve still got the bone regenerators working on his legs and ribs, and he needs to remain perfectly still for them to work properly. Plus, he’s bruised from head to toe and in tremendous pain, and you antagonizing him will only make it worse.”

 

“I don’t antagonize him,” Jim said indignantly. And then he added, “And I was here when he first woke up. He can’t be any worse now than he was then.”

 

It turned out, though, that Bones apparently was going to look worse before he started to look better. The bruises that covered his face and forearms were a putrid yellow now, and small bone regenerator strip had been placed across his nose, holding it in place while the smashed bones underneath were healed in rapid fashion. Two cuffs enclosed his thighs and one encircled his chest for the same reason - they were working on knitting his broken femurs and ribs back together, accelerating the process from weeks to days. 

 

Bones was awake, and he swiveled his gaze to stare at Jim as he stepped around the privacy curtain that kept Bones’ bed separated from the rest of the ward. The whites of his eyes were streaked with red from burst blood vessels, and Jim winced inwardly. He affected a cheerful smile, though, and hoped he could evoke one from Bones.

 

“How are you feeling, Bones?”

 

“Haven’t had a goddamn cup of coffee in three days,” Bones growled. “How the hell do you think I’m feeling?”

 

“Yeah, Christine mentioned that you were your usual cheerful self,” Jim said lightly. He pulled up a stool and perched on it, examining his CMO’s face. Bones looked ashen in the dim light, and a thin sheen of sweat covered his forehead. 

 

“Don’t you worry your head over it,” Bones grunted, catching sight of Jim’s sudden furrowed brow. “Painkillers are wearing off and it’s too early for another dose. I’m fine.”

 

And Jim knew immediately that this was wrong, because Bones never passed up an opportunity to bitch and moan, whether it was about the fact that they were spending the next five years in a vacuum with only the thin walls of a spaceship keeping them safe or that Jim couldn’t goddamn _breathe_ in the med bay without having an allergic reaction to something. Jim had learned over the years that when Bones was stoic, when he tried to brush things off nonchalantly, then that was when he was in the most distress. 

 

“Well, you’ll be pleased to know that the last of the miners were released today,” Jim said, searching around for something that might take Bones’ mind off the pain, if only for a moment. “I got a message from Starbase 24 this morning. They’re all doing well, and they’re currently being shuttled home now.”

 

Bones nodded, seemingly unable to speak. A muscle pulsed in his jaw and Jim watched as he curled his hands into fists, his knuckles going white and bloodless. He was fighting against another wave of pain. 

 

“Hey, I brought you something,” Jim said, his stomach clenching at the agony that etched itself into Bones’ face. He picked up the hand-held vid screen off the equipment cart and slid his stool closer, so that he could lean over the bed’s railing and hold up the screen for Bones to see properly. “Got a little surprise from Earth this morning, Bones. Thought you might like to see it.”

 

Jim activated the vid screen. He hadn’t yet watched the message, but he saw where it came from and, considering the date, knew what it would be about.

 

“Hi, Papa!” A little girl, her brunette hair in braided pigtails and wearing a pink sweater, appeared on the screen. She was a cheerful, bubbly child, and she launched into a rapid-fire summary of all the things she had been up to since she last spoke to Bones. 

 

Joanna would be eight years old now, if Jim was remembering correctly, and it had been almost two years since Bones last saw his daughter. They spoke at least once a week, though it was never a live communications link. _Enterprise_ was too far away for that, and so the crew had to send recorded messages back home to family members and then wait to receive messages back. The communications lag, at this great distance, was sometimes up to four days, and it wasn’t going to improve until their mission neared its end. 

 

Joanna was soon joined on the screen by Jocelyn, Bones’ ex-wife. Their divorce had been as amicable as the situation allowed - from what Jim understood of it, Bones hadn’t handled the death of his father well and quickly spiraled. He’d hit rock-bottom in the weeks before Jim met him, finding solace in drink and whatever bar fight he could get himself into. The Academy had allowed him to channel his grief into his work and largely curbed his drinking habits, and falling into bed with Jim had replaced the rush he got from picking fights. He had reached out to Jocelyn again in his second year at the Academy, finally starting to mend some of the pain he had caused both her and Joanna. They were on good terms now, and Jocelyn gave him a cheerful update of all that was going on at the farm in Savannah. 

 

And then, mother and daughter joined together in a slightly off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Jim averted his eyes and tilted the screen so that only Bones could see. It felt like an intrusion suddenly, to witness this moment between the tiny family. It was obvious how much Bones missed Jocelyn and Joanna, and Jim felt a pang at the realization that this was the first time in days he had received a message from them, and he couldn’t even view it privately.

 

The message ended, and Jim set the screen aside. 

 

“Bones?” he said softly. Bones’ eyes were closed, and his lips were a thin white line. “You alright?”

 

Bones cleared his throat and cracked open his eyes, which were bloodshot and raw.

 

“Fine,” he croaked. 

 

“Yeah, you certainly look it.” Jim reached out and swept a sweat-damp lock of hair off of Bones’ forehead before he realized fully what he was doing. The gesture was automatic, but the moment his fingertips came into contact with Bones’ fevered flesh, it sent a jolt down his spine and he snapped his hand back as though he’d been burned. It had been years since last he’d touched Bones’ bare skin; years since it became apparent that they were going to be serving together and that maintaining the relationship they had tentatively started at the Academy wasn’t going to be an option. That conversation had lasted all of about ten seconds, and they had both agreed that the ability to properly serve together was more important than maintaining a fledgling relationship. Jim swallowed hard, fighting back the memories, and said, “Want me to send a message back for you?”

 

“Joce is gonna wonder why it’s comin’ from you and not me,” Bones pointed out morosely. Jim lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

 

“And she’s going to wonder why your face looks like an elephant trampled on it when you’re finally able to sit up long enough to record a response.”

 

Bones grimaced, and then he nodded stiffly. “Don’t let ‘em worry too much. And - tell Jojo I love her.”

 

Another wave of pain hit him then, and he instinctively closed a hand around the bed’s railing, squeezing so hard that his fingers turned white.

 

Jim pushed himself to his feet, spurred into action by the pain on Bones’ face. “I’m going to find Christine. Don’t go anywhere.”

 

Christine Chapel came over and checked Bones’ vitals, asked him a few routine questions about how he was feeling, and administered another dose of the painkillers.

 

“These generally last about five hours, but can only be administered every six,” she told Jim. “They’re powerful, and we only use them sparingly.”

 

“Jus’ gonna have to suffer through until I heal,” Bones put in. The painkillers were fast-acting, that was for sure. Already, Bones’ features had smoothed over, and his accent was more noticeable now. Jim had come to learn that Bones’ southern roots only made an appearance in his speech when his inhibitions were low - usually when he was angry, but sometimes also when he was in pain or drunk. Or, in this case, drugged out of his mind. 

 

Christine left them be, pulling the privacy curtain around the bed again as she went. Jim offered Bones a small smile and patted him on the shoulder. “Well, I have every confidence in you, Bones. And as your captain, I have to tell you that I expect you to be on your feet in three days. _Enterprise_ needs her CMO.”

 

“And as your CMO, I have to tell _Enterprise_ ’s captain that he can go fuck himself,” Bones drawled. “I’ll get up again when I’m damn well ready.”

 

“There’s the Bones I know,” Jim said in amusement. He sat down on the stool again. Bones gave a huff.

 

“There’s no need to be babysittin’ me, you know,” he muttered. 

 

“I’m not babysitting you; I’m offering you company on your birthday,” Jim said. He smirked. “Or are you tired of seeing my pretty face already?”

 

“Pretty, my ass,” Bones grumbled, but it was without heat. “Don’t you have somewhere you need t’be?”

 

“Nope,” Jim lied. His shift on the bridge started half an hour ago, but Spock would cover for him. Besides, Spock owed him for beating him so thoroughly at chess the other night. “I’m free to annoy you all I like.”

 

“You don’ annoy me,” Bones muttered. His words were becoming slightly slurred now, and his rapid blinking told Jim that he was fighting the pull of sleep. 

 

“‘Course I do,” Jim said, but his heart rate had kicked up a couple of notches.

 

“No,” Bones said, flicking his gaze sideways so that he rested earnest eyes on Jim. “You can be a cocky idiot all you like, but don’t go tellin’ me how I do and don’t feel about you, Jim. It ain’t fair.”

 

Jim swallowed hard. “Bones -”

 

“We’re a couple of goddamn idiots, you know that?” Bones interrupted abruptly. “What made us think that we couldn’t be together? As if that was some lofty, impossible goal that no one could ever hope to attain. Fucking hell, Jim, we’ve cheated death together. But we can’t share a bed?”

 

Bones, out of breath, slumped back against his pillows, appearing to deflate before Jim’s eyes as the sudden burst of emotion left him. The silence was thick; for once, Jim was without words. 

 

“You should go,” Bones finally said tonelessly. He avoided Jim’s gaze. “Go, ‘fore I say something else I regret. Damn painkillers.”

 

Jim stared at him, feeling as he always did when he allowed his gaze to linger on Bones - lightheaded and dry-mouthed, his stomach turning over as though he had stepped out into thin air. Bones was the only one who could make him speechless and who could steal the breath from his chest, and it was terrifying. 

 

And it was exhilarating.

 

Jim pushed himself to his feet, braced his hands on the biobed’s railing, and leaned over Bones. Bones turned his head to look at him, surprised, and their lips met. 

 

It was a clumsy kiss, made awkward by the angle and the time that had passed since they had last done this, not to mention Bones’ momentary surprise. He stiffened, but after a moment he relaxed and parted his lips, allowing Jim to deepen the kiss. He brought a hand up to rest along the side of Jim’s neck, and Jim could feel that his fingertips were trembling. He felt weak and shaky himself, and his heart was hammering uncomfortably in his chest at his audacity. He pulled away, and Bones withdrew his hand. 

 

They stared at one another for a moment, Bones’ face unreadable. Jim was certain his expression was a good deal more transparent, though there was nothing he could do about that. Finally, Bones swept the back of his hand across his mouth and made a face.

 

“Wet,” he muttered. “Y’always were a slobberer.” 

 

His eyes were dancing, Jim saw. He let out a slow breath. 

 

“Wasn’t sure if you were going to deck me,” Jim admitted. Bones snorted.

 

“We’ll save that for when I’m on my feet again,” he said. 

 

“I’ve got a better idea,” Jim said. His breathing was shallow with apprehension, but he plunged ahead anyway. “How about dinner instead?”

 

Bones stared at him for a long moment, as though he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, s’pose I could do that.”

 

Jim leaned down and kissed him again; this time, Bones tilted his head up to meet him halfway. _God_ , but it felt good to kiss Bones again, and Jim had no idea how he had managed to give this up in the first place. What had he been thinking?

 

“Gotta go,” Jim muttered regretfully as he pulled away. “I’m supposed to be on the bridge. Spock’s gonna kill me. Happy birthday, Len.”

 

Bones gave him a two-fingered wave and closed his eyes. Jim lingered for a moment, watching him slip into a deep slumber. When Bones finally fell asleep, it was with a smile on his face. 


End file.
